Illinois' move to get rid of a hodgepodge of high school PARCC exams and give a college entrance exam to 11th-graders was praised by educators who had pushed for change and felt their voices were heard.

But new details show there was more to the story: The testing decision announced Monday came after the U.S. Department of Education determined that Illinois had run afoul of federal law and threatened to withhold federal education dollars because of the controversial way the state tested high school students in 2015 and 2016, records show.

Not all high school students were given the same state exams in reading and math, and the Tribune reported earlier this year that some students were left off the testing rosters, including kids in special education, limited English and even gifted and honors classes.

In April, the USDE placed Illinois in what the agency calls "high-risk status" for not complying with federal testing requirements, according to correspondence provided to the Tribune Friday by the Illinois State Board of Education. That status jeopardizes student poverty-related funds that states receive from the federal government.

"My decision to place Illinois on 'high-risk' status was based on the fact that Illinois did not administer the same assessment to all high school students," said USDE official Ann Whalen in a June 14 letter.

"This ... resulted in districts throughout Illinois holding high school students to different academic content and achievement standards in reading/language arts and mathematics ... based solely on their zip code, and afforded inconsistent information to parents and the public about student achievement among districts in Illinois."

The testing problem is not related to the PARCC test given to students in grades 3-8.

Federal law requires that states give reading and math exams at least once in high school, and beginning in 2014-15, Illinois launched PARCC, short for the Partnership for Assessment in Readiness for College and Careers.

PARCC is a Common Core based exam that focuses on critical thinking and problem-solving and is designed to prepare students for college and work. Test scores have been dismal and the state tests have drawn opposition from families who questioned the amount of testing at school — part of a national movement that has prompted some states to stop using the PARCC exams.

For both 2015 and 2016, Illinois allowed its school districtsto choose which set of PARCC exams would be given to high school students. For example, one school could test kids in ninth-grade level English and Algebra 1, while another could test students in junior-level English and Algebra II. In addition, students were tested based on the courses they were in, not the grade. So a 10th-grader enrolled in Algebra 1 could take that exam alongside a ninth-grader enrolled in Algebra I.

The logistics have been complex, and districts have acknowledged that some kids would never be in the testing lineup before leaving high school.

State School Superintendent Tony Smith told the USDE in an April 29 letter that the state initially wanted to give the same PARCC exams in high school, for students in junior level English and math classes. But districts wanted the freedom to choose which exams would be given, and the state went along.

Smith wrote that Illinois "complied with both the letter and spirit" of the federal testing law, and that the USDE should lift the high-risk designation. That didn't happen, and USDE officials said Friday that Illinois is still under high-risk status. It's not clear how much federal money could be withheld if the situation isn't resolved.

The USDE's latest correspondence says Illinois has until Aug. 31 to provide evidence that it will "select and administer the same statewide assessment in reading/language arts and mathematics to all students in high school in the 2016-17 school year, and that the state will commit to doing so each year thereafter."

Illinois plans to give a state-paid SAT college entrance exam to 11th-graders in spring, an exam that can be used for college admissions. In years past, some 140,000 11th-graders took the popular ACT college entrance exam at school, but that ACT contract expired and there was no state-paid college entrance exam for students in spring 2016, although some districts paid for it on their own.

Illinois will use the SAT to meet its federal high school testing requirements, ISBE spokeswoman Megan Griffin said in an email to the Tribune.

She said ISBE has not yet responded to the USDE and has until Aug. 31 to do so.

This isn't the first time Illinois has been put on high-risk status over testing issues. Last year, for example, the USDE put Illinois on high-risk status because the state had not given federally-required science exams in 2014-15. That matter was resolved when Illinois launched a new online science exam for 2015-16.